WASHINGTON — If Republicans are pushing lies and conspiracies, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Sunday, they shouldn't take control of the House.
"I think if we're going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy and pushing division and pushing lies, then the Republican Party should not have the majority," Kinzinger said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Kinzinger, a critic of his own party and former President Donald Trump, was one of two Republicans whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., appointed to the committee examining the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming was the other Republican.
"All I can say right now is my party has to embrace truth. We have to have a full reckoning of what happened on January 6, and we have to turn away from conspiracy," Kinzinger said when he was asked whether he thinks voters should trust House Republican leaders with the majority in the next election.
Last week, House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., sent a letter urging House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to remove Kinzinger and Cheney from the Republican conference, accusing them of taking orders from Democrats.
"If Andy Biggs has his way, we will be the party where truth-tellers and people that want to stand up for the Constitution, like Liz Cheney and myself, get kicked out of the party because there's no room for truth," Kinzinger said Sunday. "So I would encourage the rest of my colleagues in the Republican Party to not just passively resist that move, but to do it open and honestly."
